Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-10-21
PHASES OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
Selfish People Whom We Meet Every Day
md bara-U.aclx of Courtesv.

Selfsh People whom we Meet Every Day
and Everywhere-Lack of Courtesy.
There are some people who live in this
world as a cucumber grows in a garden.
They cling to their own vine and serve
no higher end than rotundity and relish.
There are others who live in the world
as summer breeze lives in meadow:
they find out all the hidden flowers and
set the perfumes flying. There are 9TH
ers who live as the sea lives in a shell;
their existence is nothing but a sigh.
There are others who live as the fire lives
in diamond; they are all sparkle. And
there are others, and they outnumber all
the rest, who live as blind mole lives in
the soil; they see nothing, feel nothing.
suffer and enjoy little now and then,
perhaps, but know nothing to all eter-
nifty Such people walk through life as
the mole walks through the glory of
summer day, or burrows beneath the
dazzle of winter storm. Their only in
terest is in the question. "Wherewith
shall we be clothed and what shall we
have to eat?' Life to them is merely
fattening process. They remind one of
prize beef at county fair; tomorrow
brings the SHAMELESS and the butchers
ak. but in the serene content of a well
filled stall and full stomach, they take
no thought of the future.
We meet such people every day and
everywhere. On the streets they may
see brute tyrannizing over helpless
beast of burden, or mother O. yanking
sobbing child along by the arm, as full
of ugliness herself as thundercloud is
of electricity, or a man following an in
nocent young girl with the devil in his
heart, or big boy tyrannizing over a
smaller one; and they pass it all by as in
differently as the mole would sneak across
a battle field the morning after a battle.
They have too much to do themselves to
waste time in remedying other people s
grievances. They think too much of per-
oUilai reputation to involve themselves in
an alteration with defilers of the inno-
cent, and tramplers of the weak. They
axe too respectable to get mixed up in
brawls, even if the disturbance is brought
about by the devils own drummers look
ing up recruits among the championless
and defenseless working girls, or the
parentless and homeless children of a
great city.
We meet them travelling through the
mountains or lettering by the sea. Their
only use for mountains is that they may
carve their precious initials ON the high
est peaks, pick wintergreens and blue
berries, and display their fashionable
suits and striped stockings They look
upon the sea as a big bathing tank, and
the sky, with all it's splendor of cloud and
its glory of sunrise and sunset, as 6
barometer to forecast the weather. We
meet them in business relations, and they
never believe that courtesy and business
can 60 together. A merchant in his of
fee or a lady in her parlor will bluntly
refuse to buy of worn out, discouraged
heart sick book agent, ignoring the fac
that a smile accompanying even refusal
acts like spoonful of sugar in bitter tea
and costs less. Even 'lady" clerk, be
hind counter, will be naughty and un
accommodating and insolent to tn
woman who comes to buy, forgetful tina
a customer will go long distance out o
her way to deal with a polite and wei
hammered clerk, and that, like honesty
politeness is ever the best policy. And
on the other hand, a woman shopper Wi
be whimsical and captious and trying
forgetting that the girl who serves he
has human b. ! in her veins, and oftel
: carries trol heart behind her smil
or her fromn .-"Amber" in Chicag
!, Journal.